Battling the Enemy

By M.E. Clayton

What do you get when your darkness has permission to come out and play?

A dangerous and complicated game of cat and mouse.

Deke
Deke Marlow wasn’t raised like other teenagers his age. With absent parents and more money, power, and freedom than was wise for anyone, his boundaries were practically non-existent. He only cared about four people in his life, and he was absolutely fine with that. Never caring about rules or society’s expectations, Deke lived his life his way, consequences be damned.

With his senior year at Windsor looking to be a repeat of the first three years, Deke’s just biding his time before he can graduate and get on with his future. As long as no one messes with him and everyone stays out of his way, there shouldn’t be any problems. However, when he encounters Delaney Martin at a party that she never should have been at, all she does is awaken a sleeping lion.

Delaney
Delaney Martin was a nerd, and she was absolutely okay with that. Raised by servants because her parents were horrible people, she had learned how to stay out of the limelight. She had one friend who she would die for and an arranged marriage that she used to avoid dating. She wasn’t interested in popularity, parties, boys, or anything like that. Delaney was comfortable in her invisibility.

With only one more year to go at Windsor, the plan is to go to college, get her law degree, marry her childhood friend, then pop out a couple of kids at some point in time. It’s a solid plan and she doesn’t care how boring or lame it might sound. However, when her best friend drags her to a party one night, Delaney makes the dangerous mistake of getting caught in Deke Marlow’s crosshairs, becoming his prey.

When there can only be one victor in the battle of desire...
After catching the reckless and unwanted attention of Deke Marlow, Delaney doesn’t know what to do next. Never having spoken to her in all the years that they’ve gone to school together, she can’t understand why she has his attention now. All she knows is that a guppy shouldn’t swim with sharks.

After feeling the thrill of wrapping his hand around Delaney Martin’s throat, there’s no way Deke’s can walk away from the need to discover all of her well-hidden mysteries. Knowing there’s more under her quiet surface, he’s determined to claim every secret she has. Every. Single. One. Of. Them.

Even though Delaney just wants to hide from Deke and crawl back to her normal, boring life, Deke’s on a mission to destroy everything she’s ever known and make her his, no matter who tries to get in his way.

NOTE: This book contains adult language, adult situations, explicit sexual encounters, and violence. If sensitive to any of the aforementioned issues, please do not purchase.

• Language: English
• Publisher: M.E. Clayton
• Release date: Oct 1, 2019
• ISBN: 9780463042830

M.E. Clayton

M.E. Clayton works fulltime and writes as a hobby only. She is also an avid reader and Pinterest addict. When she's not working, reading, writing, or on Pinterest, she is spending time with her family and friends, or her dog, Boy, or her cat, Seatbelt. She lives in California with her husband and enjoys doing nothing but reading. Seriously. She does nothing but read. However, that's how she likes it.

Book preview

Just a couple of things before I let you go and get your read on. While I am doing my best to work with better editing and proofreading software, all my books are solo, independent works. I write my books, proofread my books, edit my books, create the covers, etc. I have one beta who gives me feedback on my stories, but other than that, all my books are independent projects.

That being said, I apologize, in advance, for the typos, grammar inconsistencies, or any other mistakes I may make. Since writing is strictly a hobby for me, I haven’t looked into commitments in regard to publishers, editors, etc. My hope is that my stories are enjoyable enough that a few mistakes, here and there, can be overlooked. However, if you’re a stickler for grammar, my books are probably not for you.

Also, I am an avid reader-I mean an AVID reader. I love to read above any other hobby. However, the only downside to my reading obsession is when I fall in love with a series, but I have to wait for the additional books to come out. And because I feel that disappointment down to my soul, when I started publishing my works, I vowed to publish all books in my series all at once. No waiting here…LOL. Now, the exception to that will be if enough readers request additional stories based off the standalone, such as in Facing the Enemy. At that point, if I decide to move forward with a requested series, I will make sure all additional books are available all at once. As much as this is a hobby for me, I am writing these books for all of you, as well as myself.

Thank you, for everything!

Contact Me

I really appreciate you reading my book and I would love to hear from you! Now, unfortunately, because I do have a full-time job and one part-time job, plus a family that I love spending time with, I’m not very active on social media. However, for the sites I do participate in, here are my social media coordinates:

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Dedication

For all the readers who wanted Deke’s story –

I just hope I wrote it to your expectation.

Playlist

Series Theme

The Right Kind Of Wrong – LeAnn Rimes

Battling the Enemy Theme

She – Live

Love The Way You Lie – Eminem

Broken – Seether

I Wanna Be Bad – Willa Ford

Pray For Me – The Weeknd

I Knew You Were Trouble – Taylor Swift

Irresistible (Remix) – Jessica Simpson

Pray – JRY

Starboy – The Weeknd

Prologue

The one thing about Melissa Randall was that the bitch sure did know how to suck a good cock.

The party was in full swing with the bonfire blazing on the sand near the shoreline, and there were uninhibited teenage kids drinking, dancing, snorting up coke, popping back ecstasy, or flat out fucking everywhere. We were a dangerous lot, that’s for sure. Teenage kids with too much money and no supervision, that was us. It didn’t matter that we were underaged; it didn’t matter that half the shit going on here could land us in jail.

We were untouchable.

The children of the One-Percent and we didn’t answer to anyone.

When we had arrived at the party earlier, I’d had no intentions of hooking up with anyone. I had shown up just to drink and hang out. However, Melissa had been on my shit all night, and admittedly, it’d been a while since I’d gone and unloaded down a girl’s throat.

Hell, I hadn’t had any action since Roselyn had put an end to our arrangement a couple of months ago. Nevertheless, I couldn’t say that I was sad about it. As much as I adored Roselyn, she and Liam were made for each other. I’d always known that I was just an extra in the bedroom, and I’d never had a problem with that.

Still, never having been used to abstinence, it hadn’t taken much for me to cave to Melissa’s suggestions after a few beers. So, when she had dragged me behind a cluster of trees for some half-ass privacy, I let her.

However, I wasn’t so drunk that I hadn’t put a condom on before she’d sunk to her knees. A lot of people might argue that it’s just a blowjob, but I had paid attention during sex-ed; those pictures of mouth herpes had stuck with me. Besides, not judging or anything, but Melissa was awfully friendly with Sands Cove’s male population. Plus, the condom was flavored since I was thoughtful like that.

I looked down, and I couldn’t deny that she was doing her part. My dick was down her throat with her hand working my balls as she moaned like a porn star. I had my hands tangled in her dark red hair, and I held her firmly as I fucked her mouth with my eight-inch cock. Even with a condom on, there was no denying that shit felt good.

I tightened my hands in her hair, getting ready to work up to completion, when a sound to my left caught my attention. I turned my head and saw something-or rather, someone-that I never thought I’d ever see, and she was watching me get my dick sucked.

Now, it wasn’t that I was a stranger to voyeurism. I’d been to my fair share of parties that had been full of debauchery and shamelessness. Still, I’d never been to a party where Delaney Martin was in attendance, and she was the one being the voyeur.

Delaney Martin.

I watched as her eyes were taking in Melissa on her knees before me. I knew from where Delaney stood that she couldn’t actually see my dick in Melissa’s mouth, but even from a distance, I could tell the look on Delaney’s face wasn’t one of disgust.

She was captivated by what she was seeing, and suddenly, Melissa was no longer the person getting me off. The tingles developing at the base of my spine were because Delaney Martin was watching me. The burst of lust was so profound that my fists tangled and pulled on Melissa’s red hair, and I started fucking her bruised lips as if I were inside her easy pussy. Because my eyes were still on Delaney, I didn’t miss how she noticed the change. Her eyes shot up towards my face, and that’s when I saw it.

Pure fucking desire.

Our eyes met, and I was certain that she’d turn red with embarrassment and take off running.

However, she didn’t.

Her gaze held mine as I pumped my cock down Melissa’s throat a few more times before finally throwing my head back, closing my eyes, and cumming in the girl’s mouth. When my head fell forward again, I opened my eyes, but Delaney was gone.

Oh, hell fucking no.

I pulled my dick out of Melissa’s mouth, pulled the condom off, tied that bitch up, then stuck it in my pocket. Believe me, I’d rather have a busted used condom of my spunk in my pocket than become a Lifetime movie topic where some psychotic bitch turkey basted my sperm to trap me into marriage.

Melissa looked up at me from where she was still on her knees. Deke?

Now, here’s the thing with girls like Melissa; I had nothing against, uh, friendly girls. I just didn’t like it when they tried to act like what this was wasn’t what it was always going to be.

I looked down at her as I stuffed my dick back in my pants. Thanks for taking the edge off, Melissa, but I have to go, I told her. She pouted as I further explained, I caught a deer in my crosshairs, and it just ran off.

Chapter 1

Deke~

I left Melissa on her knees in the trees as I ran after Delaney Martin.

I wasn’t exactly sure what it was that had me chasing after her, but the second that she’d met my stare and hadn’t shied away from watching me cum, something had snapped in me.

I’d been going to school with Delaney Martin all my life, and she’d never made a splash on anyone’s radar that I could remember. It wasn’t that she wasn’t pretty enough or built, but I’d always taken her for an introvert. Though just as wealthy as the rest of us, she hadn’t ever participated in any of our unsupervised antics. She also never acted out of pocket, nor ever caused any drama. Delaney Martin was your typical wallflower, and she had been all the years that I’d known who she was.

However, tonight, that wallflower had stood hidden behind the trees as she watched me get my dick sucked. Delaney hadn’t stumbled upon me and Melissa, then run away, shocked at her intrusion. She hadn’t turned away when she realized what was happening, either. She sure as fuck also hadn’t run off, utterly embarrassed, when she’d gotten caught.

No.

She’d kept watching, and the darkness in me that I worked so hard to keep hidden had stirred to life. After all, Delaney Martin had watched me cum, and so it was only fair that I got to do the same thing.

As I came flying out of the thicket of trees and brush, my eyes scanned the throng of people everywhere in search of a brunette in a bright purple shirt. There was no way that I was going to let Delaney Martin get away from me.

When I rushed past Ramsey, Liam, Emerson, and Roselyn, Ramsey and Liam immediately stood up when they noticed my preoccupation. I waved them down to let them know that everything was fine as I passed them. That was the beauty of unconditional love and loyalty; no questions ever needed to be asked.

I finally found her on the hill near where all our cars were parked. She was tugging on her friend’s arm. However, Ava had a beer in one hand while nestled on Marcos Sergio’s lap, and she didn’t look like she was ready to leave. That assumption was confirmed the closer that I got to them, and I noticed that Marcos had his hand up Ava’s skirt.

Ever since I’d known Ava Hill, she had always been a wild child. She was a knockout with her long blonde hair, big blue eyes, and a body that boasted of hot sex and wild fantasies. Unfortunately for catty girls everywhere, Ava was also smart as a whip. She might look like a dumb blonde, but I’d bet money that she’ll be the head of her own Mob syndicate one day.

Now, while Ramsey and Liam had both fucked her a time or two throughout the years, I’d never gone there with her. Not because she wasn’t capable of getting my dick hard, but because she was too…off for my taste. Now, I wasn’t pretending to be a saint or selective, but I didn’t get off on girls who were fucked in the head. I wanted easy fucks with clean breaks, and Ava Hill always struck me as the type of girl that could turn on you in a heartbeat. Admittedly, I didn’t know her that well, and this was all just what I’d heard about her.

I’d also never understood how she and Delaney had become friends. Those two seemed like night and day, but they were tight as fuck. For all of Ava’s commanding ways, I’d never seen or heard of her treating Delaney badly. This wasn’t a case of having an ugly friend that you could bully to make you feel better about yourself, either. From what I could tell, they were genuinely good friends.

Granted, Delaney could never be cast in the role of the ugly friend anyway, because Delaney Martin was far from ugly. Her hair was a dark brunette, but it had different shades of that deep brown decorating the top of her five-foot-three frame. She also had these keen brown eyes under a set of perfectly arched brows. Delaney could be described as pixie-like with her pert nose and high cheeks, but she had a set of lips on her that were made for sucking some lucky guy’s cock.

The girls’ Windsor Academy uniforms had a choice of slacks or skirts, and while most of the girls chose to wear the skirt, I’d never seen Delaney in anything other than the standard Windsor top and pants. It was like she purposely tried to hide her figure, but it was no use. Delaney Martin had a woman’s body made up of a healthy-sized rack and wide hips.

However, the best thing about her?

Delaney had this scar that started on the apple of her right cheek, then slashed back towards her ear. It looked as if her cheek had gotten caught on a barbed wire or something, then had ripped her face wide open.

Ramsey had a scar that ran from his right eyebrow across his eye, then stopped at the edge of his nose, but it was a clean scar; it was a straight line. He’d gotten it when we’d been just eight-years-old, and his father had wanted to teach him a lesson in control. Little did his father know what kind of psychopath he’d been grooming Ramsey to become one day.

Still, here’s the thing that had always fascinated me about Delaney’s scar; her parents were just as filthy rich as the rest of the families in Sands Cove, but she’d never gotten plastic surgery to remove the scar. She wore it proudly, never shielding it with her hair or applying layers and layers of makeup to make it less visible.

Nope.

Delaney had a jagged scar that tore across the side of her face, and I found an immense amount of strength in that. Delaney Martin might be a wallflower, but she wasn’t weak.

Just…different.

I saw Ava’s eyes widen as she saw me approach, and Marcos head nodded me. However, I ignored everyone around me as I grabbed Delaney by her arm, then yanked her towards me. She looked up at me as her big brown eyes widened, and if I didn’t know better, I’d say that she was also holding her breath.

Fuck, she was pretty.

Low enough for her ears only, I whispered, Did you like what you saw, Delaney? This time, her face reddened with embarrassment. What part did you like best? Did you like seeing Melissa sucking my dick or were you wishing you had been Melissa?

Delaney’s eyes narrowed up at me, and I could see the tick in her jaw from trying to exercise some restraint. The last thing that she wanted was for everyone around us to find out that she’d been watching me get a blowjob; it didn’t go with her good girl persona.

Let me go, she whispered harshly.

Even though I was ignoring everyone else around us, I was very aware that everyone had stopped whatever bullshit they’d been up to and were now focused on the two of us. I’d never run after a girl before, and the fact that I’d had now was bound to catch people’s attention.

Not until I get my answer, I told her, bringing my other hand up to clasp her other arm, showing her that I was serious.

I had Delaney in my grip, her body backed up against someone’s car while my body blocked her from the party’s view, and you know what? My dick started getting hard even though I’d just shot my load only a few moments earlier.

Staring down at Delaney, I never would have guessed this girl would be the girl that would alter everything about my life. Things were changing, and I knew that they were changing because it wasn’t the feel of her body up against mine that was making me hard. It wasn’t my bruising hold on her arms that had me rock hard.

Nope.

It was that motherfucking scar on her face that kept drawing my attention.

My eyes kept flicking towards it, and I could feel this quiet hum in my blood, warning me of danger. I was so focused on that crude marking on her face that I hadn’t heard anyone approach. It wasn’t until I heard Ramsey’s voice that reality finally breach the trance that she’d had me under.

Deke, everything cool? he asked.

No.

No, everything wasn’t cool. Quiet, invisible, solitary Delaney Martin was fucking me up, and I hadn’t even had enough beers to blame it on the alcohol.

My mind couldn’t rid itself of the image of Delaney burrowed behind the trees watching me; watching Melissa get me off. I also couldn’t ignore that, in that moment, it’d been my connection to Delaney that had made me shoot off like a rocket inside Melissa’s mouth. Melissa had become a nonfactor the second that my eyes had landed on Delaney.

Though my words were for Ramsey, everyone invested in our little scene could hear me clearly. Everything’s perfect, Ram, I assured him. Me and Delaney are just having ourselves a conversation, is all.

Because Ramsey and Liam knew me so well, I heard Liam snort behind me, and Ramsey let out a deep sigh; again-no questions asked. Ramsey and Liam were already onboard with whatever I was doing, even without asking what it was that I was doing. Ramsey just asked if I was cool because that’s all he cared about. He didn’t care what I was doing; he just cared that I was okay while doing it. Liam was also pretty much of the same mind.

Emerson and Roselyn wisely kept quiet, because while we might all be friends, those girls knew better than to push past where they belonged. I loved them both to pieces, but Emerson’s control didn’t extend beyond Ramsey, and Roselyn’s control-no matter how close we were-didn’t extend beyond Liam.

Still, what they did do?

They joined Ramsey and Liam in standing at my back, so that Delaney and I were closed off from prying eyes as much as possible. However, it turned out that I hadn’t needed to worry about shielding Delaney from the crowd.

Her quiet, demur, wallflower persona was shed the second that she pushed at my chest, then yelled, No, we’re not, Deke! Now get the hell off me!

Chapter 2

Delaney~

I was embarrassed-no, humiliated.

I had never even wanted to come to this stupid party. I didn’t go to teenage parties because that wasn’t me. Ava had guilt tripped me with ramblings of this being our senior year and how our times together were coming to an end, yadda, yadda, yadda. So, I had caved because, for all of Ava’s wild ways, she’d been my best and often only friend for years.

It wasn’t that I had anything against normal teenage life, but nothing about the kids from Sands Cove was normal, and that included me.

My life had already been carved out for me, so I didn’t see the point in dating or partying. I was destined to be a socialite wife, whose job would be to help make her husband flourish. I was to be the arm candy and that, in itself, was a joke because I wasn’t even that pretty. I had brown hair, brown eyes, and my body could